Trade-Up Tuesday: Muesli!
Hooray for Trade-Up Tuesday! This is the day where I tell you about a Trade-Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give something away for free.
This summer, my new obsession is Muesli. You see, when the weather gets warm, I crave fresh fruit and nice cold skim milk all atop some kind of cereal. In summers past, that cereal would likely be Rice Chex or Corn Chex, both of which score a 24 on the NuVal scale. That is below the average score for all cold cereals (27). Fast forward to this summer, and I find myself at work, reviewing scores for one of my clients. I spy some scores for Muesli. Whoa, high 80s!! I also see the boxes of Muesli on the store shelf, because they are near some of the different hot cereals I tried out over the cold winter. Hmmmmmmm. I get brave. I buy some Muesli.
As my friend Tina would say, Holy Yum!
First of all – what is muesli? Well, according to www.wisegeek.com, muesli is a cereal made from toasted whole oats, nuts, fruit and typically wheat flakes. Since it uses whole grains, it is high in dietary fiber, and because it relies on the natural sweetness of the fructose in fruit, it is also low in sucrose. Depending upon the proportion of nuts, it can also be relatively high in protein, unlike most other breakfast cereal.
Interestingly, the term Muesli, of which there are many variant spellings, derives from the Swiss German word mus, which means ‘mixture’. Dr. Maximilian Bircher-Benner, who ran a sanatorium in Switzerland, invented muesli at the beginning of the 20th century. Bircher-Benner was keenly interested in promoting healthy diet and exercise. Along with eating nutritious foods like Muesli, and forgoing much if not all meat in their diet, Bircher-Benner’s patients had regular physical exercise and spent a portion of each day gardening. Their behaviors were modeled on the life of Swiss shepherds, who Bircher-Benner felt had the healthiest lifestyle. (Thanks to www.wisegeek.comfor this fascinating info!)
I found more info on the origins of Muesli on the back of the boxes:
So, how does this Muesli score? Much better than the Chex I used to eat all summer long!
- Bob’s Red Mill: 87
- Alpen: 87
- Familia: 43
The thing to know about Muesli is that once you add milk, it expands – a lot! It’s like when you put too much Orzo or Ditalini into soup. It becomes a bowl of mush. The serving size on most Mueslis is only 1/4 cup. You might be tempted to put more in your bowl. Don’t.
Stick to the 1/4 cup:
I know – it doesn’t look like much!
Add some blueberries (NuVal score of 100!)
Some strawberries (NuVal score of 100!)
Some nectarines (NuVal score of 93) and some cold skim milk (NuVal score of 91).
And you have a breakfast that will hold you ’til lunchtime!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky A Better Bag of Groceries reader will win all three Mueslis to try at home. Just leave a comment below telling my your summer breakfast of choice. You can enter twice by leaving a second comment with a NuVal score. You can find some sample scores by searching this blog, www.tradingupdowntown.com, or on the NuVal website. Those of you lucky enough to shop at Price Chopper, Hy-Vee, Meijer, Kroger in Lexington, KY, United Supermarkets and Brookshire’s, can find NuVal scores on your store shelves. I will choose one winner at random at 7 am EDT on Wednesday (it really is random – my kids get to pick the number). Good Luck!
Special Wednesday Giveaway This Week!
Be sure to stop by here tomorrow. Thanks to the kind people at www.csnstores.com, I am hosting a special cookware giveaway. Don’t miss it!
Posted by: Melissa 74 comments
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Muesli
